


Growing Pains

by Miko



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-12
Updated: 2012-07-14
Packaged: 2017-11-09 19:45:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/457690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miko/pseuds/Miko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Man, Dave thought getting through adolescence was a pain in the ass for HUMANS. He had no idea how good they have it, until he saw what trolls got to go through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a kinkmeme prompt for sudden alien growth, and also for size kink which I didn't quite manage to really work in there.
> 
> I'd like to send super thanks to my beta reader Elemental, who went through and much improved my Dave dialogue, because she writes an amazing Dave and I really, really do not. All my palest love, bb. 

"As if she wasn't already enough of a god damned know-it-all," Dave muttered as he strained his eyes to see through the gloom. "She's let this Seer of Light shit go to her head, and now she's a _smug_ god damned know-it-all. 'Go find Vantas, brother dear. No I won't tell you why, it might irreversibly distort the timeline.' As if I don't know ten times as much as she does about keeping the timeline straight."

The inner bowels of the asteroid weren't exactly well lit to start with, and the dim emergency lighting was rendered almost non-existent when viewed through his dark shades. Of course he could have just taken the shades off, but that would be tantamount to sacrilege, right up there with baby killing and eating All Bran for breakfast. Not in this lifetime.

Besides, he was hunting for _Karkat_. No way in hell was he letting the little prick think he'd somehow gotten one up on Dave by finally seeing his eyes uncovered. Nearly three years of enforced close association hadn't done much to foster any love between Dave and his fellow Knight, though it had at least been entertaining as hell, learning just what buttons of Karkat’s he could push to make the troll see red - or whatever colour it was. And Karkat’s schemes to get his shades off were getting more elaborate as time wore on, which only made their strifing worse.

Or better, as far as Dave was concerned.

Why Rose had been so damned insistent that Dave go chase him down, he had no idea. It was hardly the first time Karkat had stomped off to sulk in a dark corner, or gone looking for his murderclown platonic life partner or whatever. Not likely to be the last, either. Karkat always came back eventually, usually more pissed than when he'd left, and generally ranting at the top of his lungs.

He hadn't been gone all that long this time, just a couple of days since anyone had last seen him. Rose wouldn't even let Dave bring Terezi along for company. So here he was, slogging through the depths he could barely see thanks to his shades, looking for an asshole he didn't want to find and who didn't want to be found.

Upon reflection, this might have been one of the more ironic things he'd ever done, so maybe it wasn't all bad.

"Vantas, get your lazy ass out here already," Dave called. "Seriously, what the fuck are you even up to? Ollie ollie oxen free. Do you play hide and go seek on Alternia? I bet it’s Find and Go Slaughter. Last one there is a corpse, since you probably think rotten eggs are a good thing.”

He hadn't actually expected an answer, but a hollow moan echoed through the large chamber he stood in. It could have been the wind whistling through some of the broken monster tubes or some funky piece of machinery still working at whatever it was supposed to do, except there was no wind down here and the tech was dead as the proverbial doornail. Or was that a dormouse? 

A lesser person might have been a bit spooked, but Dave had been raised to be made of sterner stuff, and waking up to Cal’s face sure as hell made this haunted lab schtick seem tame in comparison. 

The shiver was from the cold, that was all. The damn lower levels were always fucking freezing. 

"Vantas?" he said again, less annoyed and more wary this time. He had to listen hard for a moment, but finally he caught the sound of a faint, keening whimper not quite like anything a human throat could produce.

Jesus Christ on a pogo ball, was Karkat _hurt_ down here? Possible scenarios ran through Dave's mind. Maybe some of the broken lab equipment had collapsed on him. Or maybe he'd actually _found_ his insane palebro and the reunion hadn't gone well. That thought made Dave pull his sword and fall into a defensive stance. He had no desire to let Gamzee get the drop on him, not after hearing about what the juggalo had done.

Cautiously he moved in the direction the sound seemed to be coming from. It led him to a doorway that passed into a much smaller room, where he found something more than a little out of place. A pile of fabric and yarn and half-made clothes was heaped in one corner, fully large enough for a troll to bury himself in. Pausing, Dave raised one eyebrow as he took in the sight.

Well, Rose and Kanaya had been complaining about their supplies going missing for a while now. This certainly explained it, and put a rather different interpretation on the sounds Dave had been hearing. He made a disgusted face.

"You _do_ realize our Sylph and Seer duo are going to pull a biznasty combo strike on you when they discover you're the one who took all this stuff, right?" he asked, putting the sword away since he hadn't found any bloody bodies. "Especially when they realize you've been playing tonsil hockey with your loverclown in there. Or is kissing too far for your non-romantic romance... Vantas?" he broke off with a frown as a muffled cry came from inside the pile.

There was no mistaking that sound as anything but a cry of pain. Whatever the pile had originally been constructed for, it wasn't being used as a cuddle site now. Carefully Dave moved forward and started digging in what seemed a likely spot. He'd just caught a glimpse of grey when the troll in the pile thrashed, sending a stray smuppet straight into Dave's face. Great. Just what he needed, a close up and personal session with plush rump. Where had Karkat even _found_ the damned thing?

"Don't," a hoarse voice said, so strangled it was barely recognizable as Karkat. "Gods, don't uncover me, just... just leave me alone!"

No creative swearing, no colourful invective... that worried Dave more than any hundred cries of pain could. "What the fuck is going on, Vantas? Are you hurt?" The thrashing had been an arm, he was pretty sure, so Karkat's head should be right about... there.

"Don't," Karkat repeated, but it was a feeble protest as he tried in vain to burrow deeper.

"Stop being such a damned baby or wriggler or whatever and just let me see... _jesus_." The last word came out as hardly more than a breath, both awed and horrified. He'd managed to uncover the troll's head, shoulders, and one arm. Karkat's skin was cracked and bleeding, the lines running together and forming patches of skin that looked like the crazed mess left behind by a mud puddle dried in the Texas sun. Some of the cracks ran so deep Dave was pretty sure he could see the slick muscle beneath. It was worst on his arms and shoulders, but the flesh on his face was peeling away in strips, too, leaving painfully raw looking wounds behind.

It took serious effort of will for Dave to keep his lunch down. After a couple of deep breaths and maybe a gag or two, he got himself under control and knelt next to the pile. Karkat was watching him warily, but his eyes were half closed like he could barely keep them open, and it seemed pretty obvious that he was too weak to fight back in any way. Despite that, there was as much anger as fear in his eyes, and Dave had to respect that courage a bit.

Dave's voice was softer than he'd meant it to be when he spoke again. "What the fuck happened to you, the bubonic plague? Is it catching, do we need to quarantine you?"

"It's too soon," Karkat ground out. "This shouldn't be happening yet, I'm not even eight sweeps old! I can't, I can't do this, there's no sopor and I can't even..." A shudder wracked his body and he cried out again, the spasms making his muscles ripple and widening the cracks in his skin.

When Dave cautiously reached out to touch a patch on his arm, he found the skin curiously hard and dry, almost like a shell. Troll skin had always seemed pretty similar to human skin before, though maybe a little tougher or they'd all claw themselves to pieces just getting dressed. He'd certainly never seen anything like this before.

"Shouldn't be happening _yet_ ," he repeated, keeping his voice flat and face expressionless. Karkat would hardly welcome any sign of sympathy - of what he would see as pity - from _him_. "You're saying this is something normal?"

"Ad... adult moult," Karkat rasped, shuddering. "Shit, even rust bloods don't hit it until they're at least eight or nine. Stupid fucking useless mutant blood." He gritted his teeth and keened as he rode out another spasm.

Adult _moult_? Dave eyed the cracked and peeling skin in a new light, torn between disgust and fascination. The three trolls had all stayed pretty much the same as when the humans had joined them, even as Dave and Rose struggled their way through early puberty and came out the other side much changed. Terezi only came to Dave's shoulder these days, horns and all. Karkat barely reached his chest.

Dave had shrugged it off as alien weirdness, and figured maybe they just didn't get any bigger. If Rose knew different, she'd never shared the knowledge with Dave. But now he remembered a dozen conversations with Terezi about wigglers and how they pupated into trolls. If they changed that drastically once in their lifetimes, but considered themselves to still be children at the age that they'd played the game, it made sense they'd have a second transformation into adults.

Fuck, what the hell was Karkat going to look like _after_?

Another whimper drew his attention away from contemplation of various Mothra-style monster forms that Karkat might take on. Cursing, he shook his head and focused on Karkat again. "Okay, well, Rose sent me down here looking for you, and I’m assuming it wasn’t for the amusement value of watching you turn into the sci-fi monster of the week. What do you need?"

"Sopor," Karkat retorted through clenched teeth. "And my god damned _lusus_. You can't give me either of those, so fuck off and at least let me die without your disgusting pale human features as the last thing I ever see."

The insult was weak by Karkat's standards, and didn't even come close to distracting Dave from the fact that the troll had essentially just whimpered for his mommy. Any other time, Dave would have had a fucking field day with an opening that obvious. As it was, he just stored the gleeful insults away for later use. He was never going to let Karkat live this down.

But first he had to make sure Karkat lived at all. That might not be so easy.

"I'm going to get Kanaya and Terezi," he decided. They were trolls, they'd know what it was that Karkat needed far better than Dave could. Why Rose hadn't sent _them_ looking in the first place, he had no idea.

Far from calming Karkat, the suggestion appeared to panic him. "No! Don't you dare! I will fucking fight my way through the bubbles after I die to find you again and rip out your intestines to strangle you with, I swear to god. And then I will _follow_ your dead self from bubble to bubble, making your afterlife as miserable as I can possibly conceive."

Well, that sounded a little more like Karkat, though it was still far from reassuring. "What the hell is your issue? They’ve presumably gotta have a better idea of what to do than I do." Looking at the translucent red fluid oozing out of the cracks, Dave grimaced. "Don't tell me you're on about your stupid blood again. They _know_ you have red blood, it's not going to be some shocking revelation."

"Knowing it and seeing it in disgusting technicolour are not the same thing," Karkat growled. "And I'm... fuck, I'm god damned _helpless_ right now. Bad enough to have _you_ see me like this."

Right, the apparently ingrained certainty in all trolls that anyone other than their red quadrants will feel obligated to kill them for showing weakness. Huffing in annoyance, Dave sat back on his heels. "I can't get you sopor, and you won't let me bring the only people who might actually know how to help you. I'm _not_ just leaving you to die down here, so get that the fuck out of your head right now." 

They'd all been through way too fucking much not to be willing to stand at each other's backs now, no matter what Dave’s personal feelings about the little fuckass might be.

Eyeing the pathetic, shivering mess that currently was Karkat Vantas, he sighed and rearranged some of the fabric to cover more of the troll's exposed body. Kanaya and Rose were never going to be able to use this stuff after it got covered in troll goop like this, but he figured Karkat had probably buried himself for a reason. Even if it was just for psychological comfort, that was still better than nothing.

"Okay, sopor’s off the table, but maybe we can find a way to recreate whatever it is the sopor is supposed to do for you," Dave said. "Knock you out, obviously, and I can see why, that looks hella painful. What else?"

"Hydration," Karkat croaked. "It's not coming off right because I'm too dry."

Nodding, Dave rummaged through his sylladex quickly. He always kept some supplies on hand, just in case something happened to the machines they'd found to produce food and it took some time to fix them. He pulled out a couple of bottles of water and twisted the cap off one, handing it to Karkat.

Scowling made the sloughing skin on Karkat's face look even worse, and it was hard to read his expression but Dave thought there might have been a hint of reluctant gratitude in the troll's eyes as he snatched at the bottle. His hand was shaking so badly he spilled nearly as much as he drank, even after Dave reached out to help steady the bottle, but in moments he had drained it dry.

He was gasping for air when he finally ran out of water to drink, but already his breathing sounded less harsh. Dave cracked the second bottle, and this one Karkat drank a little more slowly, taking the time to actually swallow rather than just pouring it straight down his 'protein chute'.

"Not as good as soaking you in it, obviously, but maybe we can improvise," Dave said, thinking fast. "There was an unoccupied monster tube in the last room, if we dunk you in it that might help. What else do you need?"

"Heat," Karkat said. "I'm fucking freezing, I've never been this cold in my entire life. You really think this is going to work?"

"Better than doing nothing at all," Dave pointed out. "You hang out there for a minute, let me see what I can do about warming the water. I'll be right back." He set a third bottle within Karkat's reach, then headed quickly back into the larger room.

The unoccupied tube was right where he remembered it, surrounded by other tubes which held weird and twisted monsters. These ones weren't the oversized giants they'd found on some of the upper floors, but only a little larger than a person. The tubes were deep enough to go over Karkat's head, so Dave took a minute to haul one of the platforms hanging outside the tube over the edge, trying not to think of what might have previously occupied it. Heating the water turned out to be as simple as finding the right button to push.

He returned to find that Karkat had nearly buried himself again, only the top of his head and his eyes still exposed. The troll watched him as he approached, and with most of the damage to his face hidden, it was easier to read the bewildered suspicion in his eyes.

Sure enough, the first words out of Karkat's mouth were, "Why the fuck are you doing this?"

"You saying you wouldn't do the same for me?" Dave asked, splaying his hand over his heart and putting exaggerated betrayal in his voice. "I'm wounded, Vantas, I'm god damned bleeding out here from the sickle you just stabbed through my heart. Here I thought we were bosom buddies." 

"What the fuck is a bosom and why would I want to be one with you?" Karkat demanded. "You're the single most aggravating thing in my existence, Strider, and considering nearly everything aggravates me, that's saying something. I'm completely vulnerable and helpless, you could do anything you wanted, why are you _helping me_?"

"Because I'm not a god damned troll, and if you haven't figured that out yet you're suffering from more brain damage than I ever gave you credit for," Dave shot back. "Humans don't default to 'kill' status the moment someone shows vulnerability, all right? What the hell would I want to do with you when you’re like this?” 

"You don't like me," Karkat said. "You don't even hate me in any useful way."

"What’s liking you got to do with it? We're in this together for the long haul, we've known that since we caused the Scratch," Dave said, folding his arms across his chest and tapping one foot impatiently, maybe just a tiny bit put out that Karkat thought _this_ little of him. "Just because I'm not fawning all over you doesn't mean I want you dead, and we're going to need everyone we can get when we reach the new session. Which is only a few months from now, thank god. Now are you going to let me try to keep you alive, or are you going to keep whining about my motives until you bleed out or something?"

For a moment Karkat just glared at him, and Dave honestly wondered if he’d pick death rather than accept help from Dave. Then another spasm tore through the troll, and when he came out panting on the other side, he looked resigned. "Fine. But don't think this means I owe you anything."

"Oh Vantas, you naive little child," Dave chuckled, reaching into the pile to get a careful grip on Karkat's shoulders. "I am going to hold this over your head for as long as we both live. Come on, let's get you out of there."

Removing Karkat from the pile turned out to be an absolutely disgusting exercise that Dave devoutly hoped he would never have to repeat. Chunks of hardened flesh came off in his hands when he tugged at the troll, leaving raw welts behind. They weren't actually bleeding, he discovered, just oozing a thick, clear red fluid that as far as he could tell was _supposed_ to be helping the skin come off. Now there were enough places exposed that he could be sure it really was muscle he saw shifting around, with only a membrane so thin he couldn't rightly call it 'skin' to hold everything in place.

It wasn't until Karkat was halfway out that Dave realized something that should have been obvious. Karkat wasn't just shirtless, he was naked. Since it was pretty much the perfect opportunity to satisfy his curiosity, Dave let his eyes drop briefly. The troll was built pretty much like a ken doll as far as Dave could see, with only a featureless protrusion of bone between his legs. It didn't even stick out very far.

"Getting a fucking eyeful, Strider?" Karkat snapped, and when Dave looked up he could see the troll was blushing.

"Aw, you're shy, that's the cutest thing," Dave drawled. He bent and scooped Karkat up in his arms as carefully as he could, though he could feel the skin shifting where he held the troll at the shoulders and knees. Trolls were surprisingly light, as he'd discovered in previous scuffles with Karkat and occasionally Terezi. "Don't worry, your modesty is safe with me. I don't kiss and tell. I have to admit though, I'm disappointed. I expected you to be all groping tentacles straight out of classic hentai, man. Or at least that it would be barbed or something, considering how pointy you are on all your other extremities."

Karkat gave him a fanged smile that emphasized the 'pointy extremities' on that particular end. "Sorry Strider, your swag isn't even close to being massive enough to distract me from monumental agony and get me in the mood. I'm surprised Terezi's still interested in you if you're this bad at seduction. Can't say I'm impressed."

"I didn't realize I was supposed to be making this romantic," Dave said. "Just hang on and let me fetch the candles and the mood music. Oh no, wait, I almost forgot. How many times do I have to tell you I don't hate you that way?"

"Hey, you're the one who brought it up," Karkat said as Dave mounted the steps to the top of the tube. He was shivering enough to make it difficult for Dave to keep his hold, though he'd barely been out in the air thirty seconds. "Don't get 'all up in my grill' and then tell me you're not interested."

Grateful that the topic had apparently distracted Karkat from what had to be truly agonizing pain, Dave carefully lowered him into the water, making certain that the shelf took his weight and his head would stay in the air. The relieved gasp Karkat gave as the water covered his oozing skin was thanks enough.

"Oh god, that feels so much better," Karkat said, the words closer to a warble than a moan. Slowly he tried to stretch out his arms and legs, hissing with every incremental movement. "Fuck. The skin has hardened too much, I think. I can barely move. If it doesn't come off the new chitin might not form properly... oh god, what if it just fuses the chunks and I'll be locked in a shell of my own body?" 

His voice was rising - he was starting to panic, Dave realized. He couldn't really blame Karkat. Dave might have been panicking a little himself, if he wasn’t far too cool for such a pedestrian reaction. "Maybe soaking in the water will loosen it up again," he said. "What's supposed to happen next?"

"How the hell should I know, I should be unconscious in a sopor cocoon right now," Karkat snapped. "Like I said, the old shell has to come off. It's supposed to dissolve in the sopor and then get absorbed by my body to help produce the new skin."

"Well, god knows if that'll happen with the water," Dave said, eyeing the tube somewhat dubiously. "I guess if you come out of this a little thin skinned, it might actually make up for your thick skull."

Karkat growled at him, and sank down in the water a little further. "It's a damned good thing my think pan is so thick, otherwise I'd have brain damage from how often the sheer stupidity of your existence causes me to slam my head against the nearest hard surface. Really, it's a miracle I haven't dented it yet."

"If you're insulting me, you must be feeling a little better," Dave chuckled. He started to climb back down the ladder, but was halted by Karkat's frantic cry.

"Wait, where are you going? Don't just leave me here," Karkat protested, wide-eyed. Dave had never seen him look so frightened. He supposed he would be pretty terrified too, if he was going through a life-threatening monumental change and had only Karkat as his lifeline.

In a carefully calculated expression, Dave tipped one corner of his mouth up into a smug smile. "Are you kidding me? Like I'm going to pass up the chance for one second of this opportunity to lord it over you. I'm just going to get you some drinking water, dumbass. You're still dehydrated, and you don't want to be drinking the shit your skin is sloughing into." He grimaced. "Or maybe you do, if you're supposed to get the nutrients back or whatever."

Some of the tension in Karkat's shoulders eased, and Dave nodded just as slightly in return. Message heard and received, in a language they could both tolerate. Dave wasn't going to abandon Karkat here, but outright promising that would have been treading into territory they didn't want to take their association into. Plus Karkat would never have believed a straight up statement.

By the time Dave made it down the ladder, retrieved the unopened water bottle from the pile, and climbed back up, Karkat had slipped into a sort of dazed stupor. Worried about the hydration issue, Dave woke him up enough to get him to drink the water, but he fell back into a restless sleep as soon as he was done. Not surprising, if his body was telling him he was supposed to be unconscious for this. Only the pain was likely keeping him awake at all.

Hours passed, and Dave fussed with his sylladex, rearranging things to be easier to retrieve. He wished it had occurred to him to ask Karkat how long the process usually took. For all he knew, he could be down here for weeks, though he certainly hoped his darling ecto-sis would have warned him to take supplies if that were the case. He briefly debated going back up to the main room just to grab some stuff, but decided in the end that he didn't want Karkat to wake and find him gone.

Eventually he shuffled the clean parts of Karkat's pile over to the base of the tube, and curled up there to catch some zees for himself. He was dozing when a sudden splash woke him, followed by a yelp that ended in a glubbing sound that definitely was not a good sign.

"Oh shit," Dave exclaimed, practically flying up the ladder and plunging arm-first into the water, his other hand gripping the edge to keep from going in completely. He had to go underwater halfway down his chest before his hand closed on some part of Karkat's body, and he hauled the troll back up into the air.

They both emerged coughing, though Karkat was worse off than Dave. The troll floundered in the water, still flailing like he thought he could swim even though his movements were jerky and weak. With an effort Dave got him situated on the platform again.

"What the fuck happened?" Karkat wheezed between coughs.

"You must have shifted in your sleep and fallen in," Dave replied. "Damn, I should have anticipated that. You okay?"

"Well I'm not drowning anymore, but I wouldn't say I'm 'okay' by any stretch of the fucking imagination," Karkat replied miserably.

He certainly didn't look much better than before. A few more chunks of hardened skin had been pulled away by the rough handling, but as far as Dave could tell none of the rest had sloughed off by itself. When he reached out to poke a piece on Karkat's shoulder, it felt a little softer than before but not much.

"If they're not coming off by themselves, we'll just have to pull them off," Dave said grimly, trying not to grimace at the idea. "Hold still, and don't attack me for this." Wedging his fingertips under a small piece of skin on Karkat's upper back, he peeled slowly and carefully downwards.

Karkat hissed and his hands clenched on the sides of the tube so hard Dave was surprised not to see blood in the water, but he held still. Once the chunk was free, Dave dropped it into the tube, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the slimy feel of the underside. "Okay, that's one down and roughly... half a million left to go," he said. "You up for it, Vantas?"

"Do it," Karkat growled. "I can take anything you can dish out, Strider."

It was obviously utter agony for the troll as Dave slowly peeled the pieces off. Dave didn't dare go any faster for fear of tearing the delicate membrane beneath. The whimpers and keening noises that Karkat made grew progressively louder, but Dave stoically continued to pretend not to hear anything. There wasn't much dignity in this situation for Karkat, but he could at least grant the troll that much.

It got far worse when he reached the sensitive places like his sides and stomach, where the skin was thinner and hard to get a grip on. Dave was impressed - and also grateful - when Karkat forced himself to help. He managed to take care of the most awkward spots, his inner thighs and groin area, which spared Dave from having to do it. Neither of them would have been able to live it down.

By the time they were done Karkat looked disturbingly like one of those skinless dummies used in science classes to show muscle structure. The thin remaining layer of his skin was so transparent it hid nothing, and Dave could hardly imagine how it was containing everything. But he was breathing a lot easier, and able to actually move more than an inch at a time, which Dave decided to assume was a good sign.

Actually, with his red blood pulsing just under the flesh, Karkat looked rather demonic like this. He'd have made good money as a movie extra.

"How long does it take the new skin or shell or whatever to grow?" Dave asked. They both leaned on the side of the tube to recover after the disgusting ordeal, Karkat perched on the platform and Dave on the other side of the glass, sitting on the top step of his ladder.

"I don't know exactly, but the whole process usually only takes a couple of days, maybe three at most," Karkat replied, tilting his head back to rest against the lip of the tube, his eyes closed. It was a display of trust unlike anything he'd showed Dave before. Or maybe it was just exhaustion overcoming his wariness and Dave was reading too much into it. "Of course, that's assuming nothing goes grossly wrong. It's been about that long since this started, but I think this qualifies as grossly wrong."

"Definitely gross, no question about that," Dave said, glancing at some of the chunks that had decided to float on the surface. There was an oily sheen to the water now, probably the fluid Karkat had been leaking. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah, except..." Karkat shuddered and rubbed his hands over the thin flesh of his arms, making a face. "Now it's _itching_. Or maybe it always was, and it just hurt too much to notice before. Argh." He started to dig his claws into the offending spot, but Dave was faster and caught his hands before he could do any damage.

"Are you crazy?" he demanded of the troll. "There's nothing wrong with your fucking claws, Vantas, and right now your skin is thinner than mine. You'll rip yourself to pieces."

"I know, but it's itching!" Karkat protested, squirming against his hold.

"Yeah, well, suck it up," Dave told him unsympathetically, refusing to release his grip on Karkat's hands. Thankfully Karkat was still weak as a newborn kitten, and he had no leverage to try to free himself.

"Nnnngh," Karkat groaned, slumping against the tube wall in defeat, though Dave could see the way parts of his flesh kept jumping as his muscles clenched. "Another reason why I should be unconscious for this. Great. This has been just one joyful experience after another. Thank you, mutant body, for refusing to wait the _normal_ number of sweeps for this, by which time I would presumably either have a new supply of sopor, or be dead. Argh GOD just kill me and put me out of my misery."

"If I thought it would work I might, just to stop your whining," Dave replied, still not letting go. "Unfortunately we both know our luck is so bad I'd just run straight into you in a bubble. Maybe you should try to sleep again?"

"That's a great idea, nearly drowning once wasn't enough fun," Karkat retorted.

"Jesus you just never stop bitching do you? All right, fine, shove over." Dave considered his clothes briefly, then shrugged and decided they were already soaked. He kicked off his shoes and ditched his god hood and cape, then slid into the water on the platform next to Karkat.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Karkat said.

"Keeping you from drowning, or itching yourself to bloody ribbons after all my hard work getting your stupid skin off," Dave told him. "Now sit tight and shut the fuck up already. Or is it hurting you for me to be holding you like this?" That hadn't occurred to him, but with skin that thin any contact must feel ten times as intense.

"It's fine, just... don't hold too hard unless you have to," Karkat said, slowly relaxing into Dave's grasp. It was obvious he was reluctant, but didn't feel he had any choice.

They shifted around a bit, trying to find a comfortable position on the narrow platform, and finally ended up with Karkat basically slung over Dave's lap, legs dangling on one side and his head against the opposite shoulder, and Dave's arm curved around his waist to keep him in place. Dave's other hand held both of Karkat's wrists to keep him from scratching.

Earlier Dave had been sort of hoping Rose would send one of the other trolls to help as well. Now he devoutly hoped she _wouldn't_ , because anyone who caught him and Karkat in this position would never let them live it down.

Though Karkat was clearly fighting to stay awake, it wasn't long before his muscles had gone lax and his eyes closed. It looked less like sleep than some kind of comatose state, but Dave tried not to think about it too much. He needed to keep believing that Karkat would come through this okay, because he was pretty sure that him acting like he believed it was the only thing keeping Karkat from panicking completely.

Of course, there wasn't much to do but sit there and brood over it. Eventually Dave let his head rest against the edge of the tub and let himself slip into sleep as well. He knew how to cat-nap without moving thanks to his bro's training, and if Karkat thrashed himself off the platform again Dave would wake up fast enough to catch him. It was better than driving himself crazy trying _not_ to think about the situation.


	2. Chapter 2

When Karkat began to stir, Dave pulled himself out of sleep, tightening his arm just to make sure the troll didn't slip into the water. A quick internal check told him that six hours, seventeen minutes, and fifty-three seconds had passed - there were some advantages to having Time as your aspect.

He opened his eyes, and cursed softly. It looked like some of the already dim lighting had gone out, because he could barely see Karkat curled against him. At least it was obvious that the troll's skin was dark again, not that hideous see-through that looked bright red thanks to his blood. Hopefully, that meant the process was going right.

Groaning, Karkat lifted his head from Dave's shoulders and blinked sleepily. His previously grey eyes had turned bright flaming red, the same colour his body had been earlier. The change was especially obvious because his skin hadn't just returned to grey - the lights weren't out after all, it was just that Karkat's body had turned such a dark, matte black it was actually difficult to make out his features. He was nearly as dark as the little Dersite they'd 'rescued' that Terezi had taken such a liking to, though his skin looked softer and more flexible than the carapace.

"Still with me, Vantas?" Dave asked, keeping his voice light to hide his very real concern. "All there, or did you lose some pieces of your brain along with your skin? I sure as fuck hope not, you didn't exactly have a lot of extra brain cells to spare from what I could tell."

"If I only had two left, I'd still be twice as smart as you, Strider," Karkat retorted. His voice was deeper, startlingly so. There was a rough edge to it that might have been pain and weariness, or might be a permanent change, it was hard to tell yet. "Give me a fucking minute, I don't have a god damned LED readout to tell me if everything's working properly." He grabbed the edge of the tube and got his feet under him on the platform, and Dave let him go so he could stand up.

And up. And _up_ holy fuck how tall _was_ he now?

Then Karkat nearly pitched straight over the side and headfirst to the ground, and Dave forgot about gawking as he scrambled to catch the troll. Between the two of them they managed to get Karkat safely back to ground level, though even then it was clear he was having a hard time just standing upright.

Well, after what he'd just been through, and growing _that much_ without the benefit of whatever he'd been supposed to reabsorb through the sopor, Dave supposed anyone would be feeling a little wobbly.

Dave was five foot eleven now in his stocking feet, and proud of it. Karkat now stood at least half a foot taller than him, probably closer to a full foot. His horns were still nubby and rounded, but they looked bigger than before. This time Dave managed to keep his eyes from dropping to check if anything else had changed, mostly because he was actually a little intimidated by the fact that _he_ now barely came to _Karkat’s_ chest. He wasn’t used to needing to look up at anyone, anymore. It made him feel like a little kid again.

"Here," he said, pulling his Derse pj bottoms out of his sylladex. His god tier and Dersite outfits still fit him perfectly, interestingly enough, though he'd long since grown out of the clothes he'd made in the alchemiter way back when. "There's no way you're going to fit back in your jeans, but these are stretchy."

"Why do I feel like a traitor for even thinking about wearing Dersite clothes?" Karkat said, shaking his head. He didn't hesitate to accept them, though, and hastened to put them on. He nearly fell over twice in the process, but Dave restrained himself from offering to help. He couldn't tell now if Karkat was blushing under that insanely dark skin, but he suspected the troll probably was. He concentrated on switching his own soaked god tier clothes for one of the sets Kanaya had made for him recently.

"So I thought your eyes were supposed to change gradually as you got older?" Dave said as casually as he could manage. It was hard not to stare at Karkat. Not only were the drastic changes startling, but what had been a stocky but muscular body on the adolescent had apparently matured into a stunningly ripped adult figure. He had to wonder how the hell that worked - where the fuck had the extra mass come from?

"Yeah, they're _supposed_ to," Karkat grumbled, rummaging in the remains of the clothes pile until he came up with his own sweater. It had been baggy on him before, but now when he pulled it over his head it strained to fit across his broad shoulders. "When they finish turning your blood colour, that's the warning sign that your adult moult is about to start. I seem to have fucking skipped that stage."

"No shit," was all Dave could really say to that. "Everything working okay? You seem to be having some trouble just staying on your feet."

"You try growing a foot in a half in one day and changing your center of balance, see how graceful you are," Karkat retorted. "As far as I can tell everything is moving fine, maybe the skin is a little thin but how the hell should I know? I don't exactly have anything to measure against... fuck!"

He'd turned enough to catch a glimpse of his own reflection in the curved wall of the tank, and actually jumped back half a foot. Dave was just barely fast enough to keep him from tumbling ass over head. "Scared of your own reflection, Vantas?" Dave asked, laughing a little.

To his surprise Karkat didn't snap back, just steadied himself and then pulled away from Dave's support, still staring at the image in the tank wall. "I just... holy shit, I'm really an adult," he said, sounding shaken. He lifted a hand to his face, covering one bright red eye briefly, then dropped it again. "Fuck. I'm terrifying."

Not 'it's' terrifying, but 'I'm' terrifying? Dave cocked an eyebrow at him. "You say that like you're surprised by what you look like."

"I've seen pictures, but it's not the same _thing_ ," Karkat said, shaking his head. His eyes were still locked on his reflection. "Shit, this is going to make dealing with Terezi and Kanaya difficult."

"You've never seen an adult troll before?" Dave asked, somewhat sceptical of the idea.

"Of course not," Karkat said. "There aren't any actually on Alternia. Why do you think we're raised by lusii? Even before Her Imperial Condescension exiled all the adults to go fight to expand the empire, adults and children didn't mix any more than children and wigglers do. Why would they be interested in us... or I guess I mean, why would we be interested in them," he corrected himself with a grimace. "This is going to take some getting used to. Normally you know it's coming, you have time to prepare yourself for the change."

No adults at all. Well, Dave supposed that made a certain amount of sense when the three life stages were so incredibly different. At least Karkat hadn't turned into some kind of insectoid monster, though he looked a little further from human than before. "Why is it going to be a problem for Terezi and Kanaya, though?" he asked. "I mean, obviously they're going to be startled, but..."

"Kids and adults don't mix," Karkat repeated, his voice flat. "Did you not just see the reaction I had to my own damned reflection? It's instinctive, you _do not mess_ with adults. Don't talk to them, don't look at them, just keep your head down and go about your business and maybe they won't decide you look like a good snack. Either that, or get ready to fight and defend yourself. Add my fucking mutant eye colour on top of that, and no, this is not going to be as simple as them getting over their initial surprise."

"Sounds like good times," Dave drawled. He wasn't sure how to take the 'snack' comment, though given some things he'd heard the trolls say about 'grubsauce' he had a queasy feeling it might have been literal, not figurative. So long as Karkat didn't take it into his head to try eating Terezi or Kanaya, it shouldn't matter. "Maybe they’ll surprise you. Anyway, not like it’s going to get better for you putting it off. Stop being a sissy, and let’s go." 

With one last piercing glare at his reflection, Karkat finally turned away. "Yeah. Might as well let the shit hit the fan sooner rather than later. That way, we might actually stand a chance of getting some of it cleaned up before we reach the new session."

They wound their way back through the maze of corridors and rooms. By the time they reached the upper levels Karkat was walking almost normally, and not like he had to think about each individual movement before he made it. Dave was reluctantly impressed. He wasn't sure _he_ could have adjusted to such a major body change so quickly. Then again, going through a drastic change was a normal process for trolls, and given their 'only the strongest survive' worldview he supposed they would have to be able to recover quickly if they wanted to live.

"Welcome back," Rose said the moment Dave stepped through the transportalizer. "I trust you didn't have too many difficulties with your task?"

"Lalonde, we are going to have a little chat sometime _soon_ ," Dave growled at her. "I think we need to discuss the..."

He was cut off by a startled shriek from Kanaya's direction. The normally unflappable troll dropped the fabric she'd been stitching and pulled out a tube of lipstick, the sound of the chainsaw abruptly echoing in the large room. A split second later Karkat, who'd just come through the transportalizer, had his sickles in hand and was crouched in a defensive position, his fangs shockingly white against his black lips as he snarled.

"Whoa, HEY, time out!" Dave shouted, whipping around. Reaching for his god tier powers, he slowed time almost to a stop. When the Knight of Time said 'time out', he fucking _meant_ it.

That gave him a chance to snatch the weapons out of everyone's hands. He couldn't figure out how to turn the chainsaw back into lipstick, so he just ditched it at Rose's feet, trusting her to take care of it. The sickles he kept together in one hand, and he made sure he was out of Karkat's reach before he sped time again.

Both Kanaya and Karkat staggered, put off balance by the sudden lack of weight from their weapons. Shaky as he was, Karkat ended up on his ass on the floor by the transportalizer, while Kanaya sagged against the wall.

"Oh yeah, that’s a perfect response to calm everything down,” Dave said, rolling his eyes at both of them. “Pull out your weapons and hack at it. Never mind, what am I saying. You’re trolls, that’s your answer to everything, isn’t it. Are you going to play nice, now? Or do I have to put you in opposite corners for a time-out?” 

"There won't be any further issues, she was just startled," Rose said, apparently unruffled as she reached down and did something to deactivate the chainsaw. Dave's ears rang in the silence, and he could hear heavy breathing from both of the trolls.

"Kar...kat?" Kanaya finally said, faltering. "You're... you're an _adult_ , that's not..."

"Not possible, yeah," Karkat said. "Tell that to whatever grub-brained bulge-twisted idiot designed my freakish body. Oh wait, that was Past Me, wasn't it. As usual, I have only myself to blame for the soul-sucking shithole of a singularity that is my life."

"Hey, what did I miss?" Terezi demanded, materializing on the transportalizer. "Sounded like there was some excitement up here." She paused, inhaling deeply. "What smells like black cherry licorice?"

"Me," Karkat said, pushing himself back to his feet in a movement that was only somewhat awkward. He hunched his shoulders like he was bracing himself for her reaction.

For a moment Dave thought Terezi would actually be immune to the instinctive reaction, or at least distracted enough by the smell that she wouldn't care. She sniffed her way closer to Karkat, even licked at his arm in curious delight... and then she frowned, reaching out to pat her way up Karkat's chest until she found his shoulder.

Then she gasped and jerked away like she'd been burned, _cringing_. Dave had never seen her do anything like that before. "I'm sorry," she blurted out. "I didn't mean to... Karkat?"

Karkat sighed, rubbing at his eyes. "Yeah," he said, more gently than Dave had ever heard him speak before. Even so, his deeper voice made her wince back again. "It's me. Once again I have hit the freakish mutant genetic jackpot. So much for your theory that I'm physiologically a limeblood, Kanaya. Apparently crimsonbloods have even shorter life spans than rusts. Lucky me."

"That is unfortunate and I'm sad to hear it." Kanaya, at least, seemed to have pulled her shit together. More or less. Her body language said she was still ready for fight-or-flight reaction, but she made herself approach Karkat with a fairly calm expression. "This is a complication but it need not be a disaster. I apologize for my unseemly reaction."

"No, it's okay," Karkat said, eyeing her like he wasn't sure how to deal with her. Dave crossed his arms, sickles still dangling from one hand, and leaned back to see what happened. As long as nobody was trying to kill anyone, he'd stay out of it.

"Maybe the best thing to do is for me to just... stay out of everybody's way until we get to the new session," Karkat continued.

"No don't be silly, that won't be necessary," Kanaya insisted. "We were only surprised."

"Yeah, it's not that big a deal," Terezi said, a little shaky but with her usually toothy grin firmly in place. "You taste even better now."

"Uh-huh," Karkat said, obviously unconvinced. "And what happens the first time I ragesplode at something? I'll give you both fucking vascular stoppage! You're midbloods, your eyes won't even start to change for another full sweep at the very least. You can't hold your own against an adult. Look at you, you're having trouble standing there right now, and I'm not even angry, just frustrated!"

It was true, both of the other trolls were flinching with each verbal exclamation point Karkat used.

"Given enough time, they will grow sufficiently accustomed to your altered demeanour," Rose said, entering the conversation again.

That proved to be a tactical error, because it made Karkat round on her with a furious scowl. " _You_. You obviously saw this coming, but you couldn't have, I don't know, _given me some fucking warning?_ I nearly DIED because I wasn't prepared in any way. Don't even try to tell me that giving me a chance to _prepare_ myself and, you know, NOT nearly die would negatively affect the timeline."

"Very well, I won't tell you that," Rose said, shrugging. "What you choose to believe of my abilities is your concern, of course. But you either trust me, or you don't. If you don't, I would suggest that having allowed me to guide our course of action exclusively up to this point was perhaps not the wisest choice. If you do... well then, you will simply have to trust me."

Karkat gave her a low growl, and somehow the familiar sound seemed far more dangerous in his new, deeper register. "Fine. You do what you have to do. But I'm not going to forgive you for this any time soon."

"As you wish," Rose replied serenely.

Turning on his heel, Karkat stalked back to the transportalizer, pausing only briefly in front of Dave with his hand out and a glaring demand in his eyes. Dave surrendered the sickles without a moment's hesitation, and even touched two fingers to his brow in an ironic salute just to make it clear that it wasn’t because Karkat had intimidated him into it. 

Karkat snorted in return, which might have been a sound of annoyance or amusement or both. Dave wasn't used to reading his new expressions yet, and they were harder to see on such a dark face.

Two more steps and Karkat was gone. Utter silence reigned in the room for a long moment, and then Terezi cleared her throat. "I, uh, should really get back to what I was doing," she said, probably trying to be nonchalant. "I left the mayor hanging down there, just wanted to see what the fuss was about. See you guys."

"I believe perhaps I will retreat for the time being as well," Kanaya said as Terezi disappeared. "I have a great deal to consider before the next time I encounter Karkat, and he deserves the fair treatment that necessitates a thorough self-examination. Rose?"

"You go ahead," Rose nodded. "I'll join you by the time you need me."

With that, Kanaya was gone as well, and Dave finally turned on his paradox twin in irritation. They'd agreed long ago to present a united front to the trolls whenever possible, so he'd mostly held his tongue up to this point. "Was it _really_ necessary to put him through that?" he demanded. "Let alone putting _me_ through that. Just one day of warning would have given him enough time to set up somewhere secure with all the supplies he needed, and I wouldn't have had to babysit him."

She gave him her very best inscrutable smile in return. "Events are playing out as I had hoped so far," she said. "We still haven't reached the most fortuitous conclusion possible, but at this point I think we are safely past the danger point of failure."

"You do remember that Vantas and I can't stand each other, right?" Dave said. "What if I'd served up some super rich and decadent desserts on a silver fucking platter, and left him there?"

"That charming and antiquated sense of chivalry rooted so deeply inside you that made you a Knight in the first place would never have permitted you to pursue such a course of action," Rose replied.

Dave ground his teeth. He really, really hated arguing with this woman. She almost always won, and she dug into places in your psyche you'd really rather she not bring into the light in order to do so. "I have to say, ecto-sis, you're pushing hard for runner up in the Stanley Bowl of Most Aggravating Person In My Life."

"Stanley Bowl, is that the basketball championship?" she asked, tapping her lips thoughtfully.

"Baseball, I think, but what the fuck does that matter?" Dave rolled his eyes at her. "You still haven't answered my damn question. Was it really _necessary_?"

She sighed and dropped the sphynx act, just looking at him straight on. "How much more likely is he to trust you at his back in a desperate situation now, without argument or delay?"

"Still not an answer," Dave countered, but he knew when he was outmanoeuvred. Bro had taught him that there was no shame in a strategic retreat, as long as you returned to the fight another day.

He just hoped the whole thing was worth it. The worst part was, it probably _would_ be, and that was only going to make her even more smug about everything.


	3. Chapter 3

Things didn't exactly settle down quickly, but it didn't take as much time as Dave had feared. Terezi got over it first, as he'd expected - she was far too drawn to the enticing new scent Karkat apparently gave off. It was as bad as when she'd first met Dave and was hounding him to let her sniff his eyes, except it was harder for Karkat to fend her off since he had a lot more surface to defend. She still winced when he started off on one of his rants, but she stopped outright cringing.

Kanaya took a little longer, but eventually she seemed to grow accustomed to the change as well. Dave did notice that both of the female trolls now always let Karkat enter or leave a room first, waited until he sat down before choosing their places, and other small signs of submission that were probably subconscious. Karkat didn't even take advantage of it or get a swelled head, which surprised Dave. Maybe the troll's personality had matured along with his body.

Actually that made a certain amount of sense when Dave stopped to think about it. Humans matured slowly over time, so it wasn't as noticeable when the hormones and chaos of adolescence finally released its grip on their thought processes. But if trolls matured all at once, their brains would also go from child to adult in a sudden jump.

Kind of disturbing, really, but he mostly tried to keep it out of his mind. Overall Karkat still reacted predictably to having the same buttons pushed, and their wrestling matches had gotten a lot more fun again now that Dave didn't outweigh him by half as much again.

Pretty much only the subject of Terezi had changed significantly among his triggers. Before, bringing her up would inevitably send the troll into a rage about the inappropriateness of Dave's relationship with her, or set him off ranting about a schedule to share her with flipping affections. Now when Dave mentioned her name Karkat's jaw would clench and he'd go quiet and look away, sometimes even getting up and leaving.

Dave was a self-admitted prick and an asshole, but even he knew there were some boundaries you just didn't push. Whatever it was that was hurting Karkat so much about the change in his circumstances with Terezi, Dave wasn't quite cruel enough to rub his nose in it.

Besides, having him just walk off quietly wasn't anywhere near as much fun as pushing him into a rage, and there were so many other ways Dave could still do that.

"You know you're doing that wrong, don't you?" he commented, hands in his pockets as he slouched just behind the chair Karkat was sitting in. He didn't need to be that close to read the screen over the troll's shoulder, but then again the point wasn't actually to read the screen. The point was to push Karkat's personal space bubble and annoy him.

"Don't you have something better to do than hang around criticising something you know less than nothing about?" Karkat said, hands clenching on the keyboard.

"Oh yeah, totally," Dave agreed, nodding his head. "There's like, a million and one things for me to do on this asteroid floating in the middle of nowhere that are way more important than this. I could be polishing my swag, I could be mixing some sick beats, I could be getting my grill ready for the bitches that will be all up in it the moment we finally land..."

"Then why don't you go do one of those things and leave me the fuck alone," Karkat demanded.

In answer Dave leaned down and crossed his arms on Karkat's shoulder, making certain to jab one elbow into the troll's neck. "Nah," he said, letting his accent draw the word out until it was practically a sentence in itself. "This is more fun."

Growling, Karkat surged up out of the chair, grabbing one of Dave's arms and digging his claws in as he tried to turn in such a way that he could flip Dave over his shoulder. Dave was faster, side-stepping out of the way of the lunge, but he couldn't break the iron hold on his wrist.

He used it to pull Karkat to _him_ instead, ducking under their combined grip and sweeping his leg out while the troll was still unbalanced.

Karkat went down all right, but he _still_ didn't let go of Dave's hand, pulling Dave down on top of him. For just a moment Dave thought he'd gotten the upper hand, his knees digging hard into Karkat's hips, one hand pinning his shoulder down and the other one pressing his wrist to the floor.

Then Karkat pushed off with his other hand and flipped them both over. Dave went with the motion and turned it into a roll, and they both battled to come out on top.

In the end they fetched up against the wall and were forced to come to a stop, both of them panting and Karkat's low growl vibrating in the scant space between them. To Dave's disgust Karkat had ended up on top, both hands pinning Dave's wrists and their hips and legs pressed together. Dave had no leverage at all, and now that Karkat weighed more than he did, he couldn't just lift the troll up with sheer strength.

He cursed, and Karkat grinned down at him. The whiteness of his fangs was still startling in his dark face, and Dave couldn't get used to the way it was so difficult to actually see his features. It made the troll appear to be all bright red eyes and shining white teeth, which gave him more than a bit of a sinister look.

"Oh no, Strider," Karkat said when Dave tried to throw him off anyway. The growl made his voice vibrate in a queer way, almost like a menacing purr. Which absolutely did not send a shiver down Dave’s spine. "I've finally got you right where I want you with no witnesses around. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

The comment about lack of witnesses made Dave wary. "I don't care how well you hide the body, Vantas, they're still going to find it," he said, trying to appear cavalier and not like he was worried it could be an actual thing. "If Rose doesn't see it coming, Terezi will sniff it out after." 

Christ, he kept forgetting just how much _bigger_ than him Karkat was now. The troll could probably tear him in half without thinking too hard about it. Dave was sweating, but he was determined not to let it show.

"Not killing you just yet, though I won't say it's off the table entirely," Karkat countered. He transferred both of Dave's wrists to one hand, freeing the other. Dave tried to take the opportunity to pull free, but Karkat was the proverbial immovable object.

Then Karkat reached for his face, and when Dave understood what he was after, he let out a growl of his own. Somehow he managed to get enough leverage to buck up, and they struggled for a long moment, but when the dust settled they were right back in the position they'd started in.

Momentarily exhausted by the effort, Dave lay there panting, trying not to freak out. Or at least trying to do it quietly. Karkat took the opportunity to snatch his shades right off his face and ditch them to one side... and then his red eyes widened as they met Dave's own.

To Dave's surprise, the next thing the troll did was throw his head back and laugh. "Ha! What do you know. Karkat Vantas and Dave Strider actually have something in common, and the universe hasn't imploded under the sheer mass of shock and incredulity. Maybe it's a good thing it was revealed while we're technically not in any universe at all?"

Despite himself Dave snorted. It was a valid point.

"So now that I've got you pinned down and you can't hide behind your stupid fucking shades, you and I need to have a little talk, Strider." Karkat smirked down at him. "You know what the single _most_ aggravating thing about this new adult body is?"

"The fact that your horns didn't grow with the rest of you, so now they look even smaller?" Dave taunted him, buying time while his mind raced to figure out the seeming non sequitur. He felt achingly vulnerable without his shades, and it was distracting him from the already difficult process of following a troll’s line of thought.

"The way it's trying in _no uncertain terms_ to remind me that the drones ought to be arriving any minute now, and I'd better get down to pailing like my life fucking depends on it," Karkat informed him. "Because it does. Or rather, it would, if there were still any drones and they wouldn't cull me for being a mutant freak anyway."

"Awww, poor widdle Karkitty is all grown up and his sex drive finally kicked in," Dave laughed mockingly. "What the fuck has that got to do with... me. Oh."

 _Oh_. Fuck. Suddenly the way Karkat was grinding his hips down a little harder than was actually necessary to keep Dave pinned took on an entirely different meaning. "I thought you didn't hate me that way?" Dave said, his heart rate picking up until it felt like it was pounding at double time.

"I didn't, when we were just stupid kids fighting over Terezi and trying to see who could push each other's buttons harder," Karkat replied, his smirk ratcheting up a notch. "Then you saved my fucking life and turned a blind eye to the most vulnerable moment I will _ever_ experience. That'll win you just about any troll's favour, Strider, for the record."

"So what, you're _flushed_ for me now?" Dave exclaimed, horrified at the thought. The day Karkat Vantas _pitied_ him, he would cut his own damned head off in mortified shame.

"Kismeses need to be able to trust that they won't kill each other in a moment of weakness a FUCK of a lot more than matesprits do," Karkat pointed out. "It's far more vital to know that even though your partner hates you, he won't take that one, final step."

Okay, hatred Dave could deal with, even the weird troll romantic kind. He didn't need to end his life in disgrace. "You're forgetting one important detail, Vantas," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm _human_ , remember? We don't do your fucked up hatred romance thing."

Slowly Karkat leaned down until their faces were just inches apart, red eyes boring into Dave with the intensity in his gaze. Dave could feel every breath Karkat exhaled entering _his_ lungs on the inhale, until it was like they were sharing the same air back and forth. He realized that he was breathing too hard about the same time he realized that the way his palms were sweating might make it easier to break Karkat's grip.

He lay there absolutely unmoving, not even trying to get free. Hypnotized, he tried to convince himself, not anticipation. Certainly not submission.

"Tell me that the first thing you think about when you wake up every evening isn't plotting the ways you're going to make my life hell that night," Karkat breathed out, scarcely more than a whisper. "Tell me that the last thing you think about at dawn isn't a smug review of every time you got one up on me, or got the reaction you wanted out of me. Tell me I haven't caught you staring at me when I'm practicing with my sickles, especially when I'm not wearing a shirt. _Tell me_ , Strider."

Well, when he put it that way. Dave opened his mouth to give a flip answer - he'd come up with one in a second, he was sure of it - but he couldn't make a sound through his parched throat. Without thinking about it he swallowed and licked his lips to try to wet them, and that made the heat in Karkat's eyes flare higher.

"Put yourself in my shoes," Karkat said. "Here I am, at the peak of my sex drive, and not a god damned adult troll in sight. You and Rose are at or near the human equivalent as far as I can tell, but she's taken and I'm not horning in on Kanaya's territory, even if Kanaya's not ready to take full advantage of it yet. And there you are, taking _every_ god damned opportunity to drape yourself aaaaall over me, or provoke me into a close-quarters wrestling match, or watch me working out. Don't even try to pull that stupid fucking 'not a homosexual' card with me."

Damn it, Dave couldn't deny, on an objective level, that Karkat's new body was... well, fucking smokin' is what it was. Tall and lean and muscled, and once Karkat had gotten used to it, he moved with a lethal grace that Dave couldn't help but appreciate. Combine that with the fact that Dave was a sixteen year old boy with a perfectly healthy body, surrounded by his biological sister, two other trolls who for all intents and purposes were still about thirteen, and a stray carapace creature who as far as Dave could determine might have no sexuality at all. He'd tried thinking about Jade and even John a time or two, but in his mind's eye they were still only thirteen, too.

So yeah, presented with the tantalizing view of Karkat's new body, he might have had a stray fantasy or two. Thousand. That didn't mean he was in love with the little prick.

"Karkat, I would rather fuck a god damned smuppet than give you _any_ kind of satisfaction, let alone the sexual kind," Dave told him. "It's not exactly my life's ambition to frustrate you at every opportunity, but it's sure as hell the most entertaining thing I've found to do on this rock. Just because you are literally the _only_ thing in my life right now I can legitimately fantasize about, that doesn't mean I intend to actually follow through. All the more so if you actually _want_ it."

"Yessss," Karkat hissed, eyes gleaming as he kneaded at Dave's wrists with his claws. "Exactly. Which is why I'm going to _take_ satisfaction from you, and you're going to _like_ it, and then you're going to get me _back_. Aren't you."

It wasn't phrased as a question. It didn't need to be, because Dave had _finally_ gotten it through his admittedly sometimes thick skull that they were _describing the same thing_. He lived to torture Karkat, but he would jump to defend the troll against any outside threat. Huge blocks of his time were taken up each day with nothing but thinking about the little asshole, plotting his next move in the unending one-up war between them. He _wanted_ Karkat, badly, and the only thing stopping him from admitting it was knowing that it would give Karkat far too much pleasure.

Christ, if that wasn't hate-love, what the fuck was it?

Perhaps seeing the comprehension in his eyes, Karkat backed off just a fraction, enough to let them see each other's expressions properly. "You want this to end, all you have to do is say the word," he said, his tone taunting. "Go on, say it. I dare you. You'll regret it for the rest of your desperate, lonely life, wondering what you _could_ have had if you'd just shown some fucking courage. The word is ‘no’, in case your pathetic little human walnut of a think pan isn’t capable of comprehending a concept that complicated right now."

Oh, it was _on_. "You are the most vile sack of shit I have ever seen. I would sooner stick my dick in a blender than into your nook, or whatever the fuck freaky equipment you've got down there," Dave told him bluntly.

"That's not a no," Karkat pointed out.

"Wow, I did not know that," Dave said in mock-wonder. "Here with all my vast expertise at mixing words and sounds together into the very sickest of beats, not to mention listening to Lalonde natter on in her eternal quest to use every single word our language contains, I never once realized that the sounds I just strung together were not equivalent to the consonant 'n' followed by the vowel 'o'. Thanks so much for enlightening me, bro."

For a moment Karkat looked confused, but then his eyes lit up as he caught on. His grip on Dave's wrists got tighter, enough that Dave grunted and tried to yank them free again, but Karkat held on. "I am going to make you _scream_ for surrender," Karkat hissed against his mouth as he leaned down again. "And then I'm going to make you scream my name, over and over, until it's literally the only thing you can remember."

"As usual you talk a good game, Vantas, but the reality is nothing but hot air," Dave laughed.

He waited, forcing Karkat to take the initiative, but the moment their mouths met Dave was fully engaged in the kiss, biting and licking at every inch of skin he could get between his teeth. Karkat's fangs were _sharp_ , but he was surprisingly careful with them, and Dave refused to let so much as a single sound of protest escape him. On the flip side, Dave could apparently bite down as hard as he wanted and all he'd get out of Karkat was a warble that didn't sound anything like a complaint, so he happily went to town.

He didn't realize Karkat had released his hands until his fingers were digging into the troll's back hard enough to make Karkat grunt. Dave laughed around the kiss. "You asked for it, now you can suck it up and take it," he said.

"Oh, I fully intend to take it," Karkat said, with a hard thrust of his hips that startled a moan out of Dave. "I might suck it as well. Depends on how much you aggravate me into wanting my teeth near your sensitive bits."

"Valid, ah! Point," Dave got out, rocking his hips up into the downward grinding pressure Karkat was exerting. Either that bone ridge was bigger in the adult form or Dave was remembering it wrong, because it felt fully as big as his cock, if not bigger. It also felt fucking _amazing_ pressing against him like that.

They tore at each other's clothes without much regard for the idea that they might have to put them back on again at some point. All Dave was thinking about was getting closer to that incredible heat, and maybe inflicting some damage with his nails while he was at it. He could already tell he was going to have to work hard to get any gouges or bite marks to stay on Karkat's tough black skin for longer than a few minutes.

Karkat was having no such trouble marking Dave with his claws, though as with his teeth, he was just barely riding the line between 'fuck, no' and 'fuck _yeah_ '. Dave was going to be walking wounded tomorrow, and he discovered that he did not give one single flying fuck what anyone else thought about it.

He got his hand inside Karkat's pants first, fingers exploring that mound of bone. It _was_ definitely bigger than he'd remembered it, and he discovered that the flap of skin that covered it didn't quite go all the way beneath it, leaving a hollow area he could press up into with his fingertips.

 _That_ got him a hell of a reaction, as Karkat jerked and cried out against him, every muscle going tense all at once as he fucking _quivered_ in visible anticipation. Laughing, Dave hastily withdrew, which got him the predictable swearing and claw gouges in his side.

"Go back, asshole," Karkat hissed. "I told you, I'm taking my satisfaction from you whether you like it or not. You don't have the right god damned equipment to do it properly, so you can fucking well make do with your hand."

Dave was trying to put what he'd seen a month ago together with what he'd just felt, and coming up a little confused. "What, do you guys take turns getting off or something? There's no way two trolls could get both bulge things against each other in the right spot at the same time unless you were sixty-nining, and even then it would be more like you were just squishing your nooks together."

"Unless we were _what_?" Karkat scowled down at him. "Of course we take turns, how the fuck else would you do it?" He scrunched his face up in a way that Dave would never admit was actually kind of adorable. Probably doing the same mental gymnastics Dave had just gone through, trying to picture it. "Even if you could both get off at once, how the _hell_ would you ever hit the bucket? Your material would get everywhere."

"Fuck that noise," was Dave's considered opinion. He was _not_ getting Karkat off and then trusting the troll wouldn’t just leave him hanging. "Pants off. _Now_."

"First sensible fucking thing you've said all night," Karkat grumbled, and they raced to get each other's pants off.

Predictably, Karkat paused to stare at Dave's junk with a sort of repulsed fascination, but Dave was having none of it. "Gawking afterwards, Vantas," he said impatiently, grabbing a handful of Karkat's hair at the back of his head and yanking upwards. Karkat hissed, but didn't fight the hold, and that half-lidded look in his eyes sure as hell resembled pleasure. "Right now, fucking."

He pushed his hips up again, trying to aim for that hollow spot beneath the bulge with his cock. The incoherent noise Karkat made in response was _definitely_ pleasure. At least until Dave succeeded in getting the head of his dick wedged into that spot and pushed up again, at which point Karkat gave a strangled yelp and jerked his hips away.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing, Strider?" he growled.

"Yeah, okay, that's not gonna work," Dave conceded, panting. He thought hard for a moment, then grinned. "I got this. Turn over."

"What?" Karkat frowned at him suspiciously.

"Turn _over_ ," Dave repeated. Karkat was just distracted and off-balance enough that when he heaved upwards again, this time he managed to flip Karkat over and roll himself on top.

Karkat struggled, of course, but Dave managed to get him on his front and pressed up against him from behind, aligning their bodies from chest to thigh. The troll subsided for the moment, breathing hard, but Dave didn't make the mistake of thinking he'd given up the struggle for dominance just yet. And given a moment to collect himself, he was more than strong enough to throw Dave off and do it his way.

"Like this," Dave told him, and nudged Karkat's legs apart just far enough to let him slide his cock into the crease of Karkat's ass. Not aiming for the hole there, but pushing _between_ the tight pressure of his legs. Karkat protested and tried to throw him off for all of about five seconds before the head of Dave's cock hit that hollow spot from behind, and then he groaned and went limp.

"That's more like it," Dave said, his own voice rough with eager need. "Looks like if you want it, you're going to have to take it, all right. Take exactly what I'm giving you, that is."

Of course the taunt made Karkat tense up and thrash again. "Like fuck I am," he snarled. "This is _my_ victory, don't even try to pretend otherwise. You didn't even want to do this!"

"Yeah well, now that we're doing it, we're going to do it on my terms," Dave replied, pulling back a little and thrusting forward again. Karkat's legs were clamped so tight it was almost painful to move between them, but GOD it was the best kind of pain he'd ever experienced. The hollow beneath the bone was warm and wet, fuck it was absolutely soaking, and the fluid made the glide of flesh against flesh a lot easier.

Hell, it was only supposed to be the first couple inches of your dick that had any real sensation anyway, right? It sure as fuck felt amazing every time his tip pressed home into that soft heat.

"If you don't want it, all you have to do is say no," he taunted Karkat with his own words.

"Go fuck yourself with a rusty sickle, Strider," Karkat snarled. "I'll lend you one of mine, just let me bang it up a little more to make sure there's lots of nicks to catch your nook and rip it to pieces."

"I don't have a nook, dipshit," Dave reminded him. "And that wasn't a 'no'."

"I will MAKE a nook for you, I'll carve it out with my own goddamned claws, and pack it full of sea salt to make sure it never stops hurting," Karkat said.

"Still not a 'no'," Dave laughed. Two could play this game, and he was winning both ways. Karkat's words might be a protest but his body was shouting 'yes' loud and clear, rocking back into each thrust Dave made.

With another struggle Karkat managed to get his knees under him for leverage, but rather than throwing Dave off as he'd expected, the troll dug his claws in and arched his back so his chest was flat on the floor, putting his ass at a better angle for Dave to thrust against. He was making an odd little keening noise with each movement now, getting louder each time as he started to tremble with building tension.

Alien anatomy or not, Dave knew an impending orgasm when he saw one. He stopped messing around and started thrusting with serious intent, wrenching a sharp cry out of Karkat with each impact. Dave had to grit his teeth against a cry of his own as Karkat squeezed his thighs tight around him.

It was too much, and despite his intention to get Karkat off first Dave couldn't take any more. He collapsed against Karkat's back, one hand braced on the floor to keep from pushing the troll flat as his world exploded.

Karkat was scrabbling at the floor with his claws, fighting for purchase or maybe just desperate for anything to hold on to. It took Dave a few seconds for his brain to catch up to reality and parse what the troll was babbling. "Don't pull back don't pull back FUCK more..."

Remembering the steady grinding pressure Karkat had used when trying to entice him, Dave jammed his hips as far forward as he could and held them there. He was starting to soften, but it was apparently enough. Karkat gave a hoarse, warbling cry and gushed fluid all over his legs and Dave's cock.

Then he collapsed, taking Dave down with him. They both lay there limply for a long minute, breathing hard and, at least in Dave's case, trying to figure out what the fuck had just happened.

Finally he decided that he really didn't care exactly how it had fallen out. It was the most amazing thing in his life, he wanted to do it again, and he wanted to do it again _soon_. And... yep, he still thought Karkat was an arrogant prick who needed his face bashed in most of the time.

Topping him in sex was just as valid as beating him through any other method, Dave concluded. It was far more enjoyable than most, though.

"All right, get the fuck off me, you weigh a tonne," Karkat grunted, shoving at the floor with his hands and heaving Dave to one side.

"Way to bask in the afterglow," Dave said dryly, stretching languidly before sitting up to assess the damage. His shirt was pretty much a write off, but his pants were probably salvageable. Not until they'd been thoroughly cleaned, though. He made a face as he switched his current outfit for his god tier. "Jesus christ now I see why you need the bucket."

"You're the one who wanted to do it some perverted human way," Karkat said. "How the fuck was I supposed to get a pail in place?"

"Also, we just totally had sex in the most public area of the entire asteroid," Dave realized. If it hadn't been so far beneath him, he might just have blushed. Quickly he retrieved his shades from where Karkat had tossed them and slipped them on, just to cover any lingering sign of embarrassment. "If anybody came in, saw us, and left, we probably wouldn't even have noticed. And we'll never live it down."

"No worries," Karkat said, stretching his arms up over his head. It made him look even taller, and emphasized the rippling muscles in his torso. Dave watched out of the corner of his eyes, the shades helping to hide his admiration. Karkat clearly had more than enough ego about his appearance without any affirmation from Dave. "I told Kanaya and Terezi not to let anyone in here today. I do try not to abuse the fact that they seem to have trouble disobeying me now, but I might as well take advantage _some_ times."

"Thereby announcing to absolutely everyone that you were planning to jump me," Dave sighed. "Good going, Vantas, you might as well have posted it on facebook. Well, the carapace dude might still be clueless."

"Who said I was ever planning to try to keep it secret?" Karkat retorted, raising one eyebrow. He grabbed Dave by the shirt front and hauled him in for a hard kiss, and Dave didn't fight. Much. When they pulled back, they were both panting again. "You're mine now, Strider, and I want the whole fucking world to know it."

"Uh-huh. Who belongs to who?" Dave crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow right back at him. "Pretty sure I topped that round, Vantas. I'd say that means you belong to me, not the other way around."

"Oh, you are _so_ finished," Karkat exclaimed, a predatory gleam in his eye that made reluctant heat stir in Dave's groin despite the very thorough satisfaction he'd just gotten.

"You'll have to catch me first," Dave taunted him, and slowed time to make sure he would reach the transportalizer before Karkat.

Not too slow, though. He only planned to run as far as his room, after all, and he didn't want Karkat to take _too_ long to catch him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Gorgeous fanart by Syblatortue!](http://syblatortue.tumblr.com/post/27229164768/a-messy-doodle-for-the-fic-growing-pains)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Growing Pains [PODFIC]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/514854) by [Opalsong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalsong/pseuds/Opalsong)




End file.
